The robotic cup attachment system can cup cows at 12 seconds a cow while the milking platform is still moving, allowing farmers to batch-milk cows as they normally would and maintain their current grazing management systems.
It’s the product of almost five years of work and millions of dollars of investment by Scott Milktech Ltd (SML), a joint venture company between Milktech (owned by Fonterra chairman elect John Wilson, LIC chairman Murray King and Waikato-based human resource specialist John Fegan) and the NZX listed, Christchurch-based Scott Technology Ltd.
King said although the robotic system wasn’t likely to be commercially available for about another year, the working prototype had been unveiled now because it had become increasingly difficult to keep it under wraps.
The system has been developed at Rangitata Dairies in Canterbury, the farming partnership Wilson and his family are involved in.
While it was based on “off-the shelf” technology, it combined them uniquely and added a fair bit of their own intellectual property (IP), King said.
That included a six-axis robot linked to a 3D time-of-flight camera to enable the system to guide the cups on to the teats, along with software developments and specialist engineering.
There’s no price tag yet but it’s expected to be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars and fall in a range that will lead to a three- to five-year pay back period.
SML is in discussions with other parties to help get the revolutionary system to market and offer ongoing servicing.
Scott Technology chief executive Chris Hopkins said the plan was to put more prototypes into working environments as SML moved towards commercialisation.
The robotic cup attachment system was a fantastic example of Kiwi ingenuity, with farmer practicalities and know-how combining with high-tech engineering, optics and software capabilities, he said.
